The Dietary Effect of Vitex agnus-castus Hydroalcoholic Extract on Growth Performance, Blood Biochemical Parameters, Carcass Quality, Sex Ratio and Gonad Histology in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to consider the impact of Vitex agnus-castus hydroalcoholic extract, containing phytoestrogenic compounds on growth indices, sex ratio and histology of gonads of female Zebrafish. Fish larvae (4-day-old after hatching) were nourished with investigational diets (0 (control group T0), 5 g (T1), 10 g (T2) and 15 g (T3) kg−1 food) from first active feeding for 90 days. The results showed that Condition Factor (CF), Food Conversion Rate (FCR), Body Weight Gain (BWG), and Specific Growth Rate (SGR) were affected meaningfully by hydroalcoholic extract of Vitex agnus-castus (p < 0.05). These factors were significantly higher in compare to T3 treatment (p < 0.05). With increasing concentration of the extract in the diet, the ratio of female to male increased Treatment of T3 resulted in 87.23% feminization. Overall, this study suggests the use of T3 treatment achieves the best reproduction performance and a higher percentage of females in zebrafish as a model for aquaculture species. According to the results, the lowest levels of glucose and cholesterol were observed in T3 treatment and showed a significant changes with the control and treatments (p < 0.05).

Zebrafish as a Screening Model to Study the Single and Joint Effects of Antibiotics

“…The limitations of traditional mammalian models motivated the researchers to search for alternative vertebrate model systems. In this context, the use of zebrafish ( Danio rerio ) to study the toxic effects of molecules or therapeutic efficacy has grown markedly in recent decades [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Their rapid life cycle, small size, external development, prolific spawning and genetic and physiological similarities with mammals are some of the main attractions of zebrafish as an alternative to traditional organism models for toxicology studies.…”

Phenolic Compound Analysis and Pharmacological Screening of Vitex agnus-castus Functional Parts

“…Recently, essential oils and organic extracts from V. agnus castus showed promising properties including antibacterial, antioxidant, anticancer, and anticorrosion [7][8][9][10][11]. However, at our knowledge, there is no study that investigated a comparison between different plant parts of V. agnus castus.…”

Effect of Diets With Different Lysine Levels on the Hemograms of Juvenile Tambaqui Colosssoma Macropomum (CUVIER, 1818)

“…It also acts in the production of L-carnitine which contributes to lipid oxidation and helps the immune system by preventing degeneration response mechanisms (Grisdale-Helland et al 2011;Furuya et al 2013;Hua et al 2019). Fish farming requires the sh's health to be protected by the body's defenses in order to make better use of the diet (Aride et al 2016(Aride et al , 2018(Aride et al , 2020Nascimento et al 2020;Hamed et al 2020;Van Doan et al 2019;Hossein et al 2020;Gholampour et al 2020;Rashidian et al 2019Rashidian et al , 2020 Active in the protection of vital processes against infectious disorders and stress, leukocytes are mediators of the innate immune system, and can present different types of granulocytic and agranulocytic cells according to the species of sh investigated (Ngugi et al 2015;Lemos et al 2018;Oliveira et al 2016). Thrombocytes are small cells, ovoid, elliptical or fusiform, which act in the blood clotting process (Oliveira et al 2016).…”